System and Method for Performing Operations of Numerical Control Machines

ABSTRACT

A method for machining a workpiece by a numerical control (NC) machine constructs a model of a scene from one or multiple images including at least a part of the workpiece and a part of the NC machine and registers a model of the NC machine with the model of the scene to produce a first transformation between a coordinate system of the model of the scene and a coordinate system of the NC machine. The method also detects the workpiece in the model of the scene to produce a second transformation between the coordinate system of the model of the scene and a coordinate system of the workpiece and combines the first and the second transformations to register the coordinate system of the workpiece with the coordinate system of the NC machine. The registered workpiece is machined with a tool of the NC machine.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to numerical control machining, andmore particularly to registering a coordinate system of a workpiece witha coordinate system of a numerical control machine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Numerical control (NC) machines can perform various operations, such asmilling, drilling, and cutting, to a workpiece using a tool. The sizeand shape of a workpiece can be arbitrary. Usually, a relationshipbetween a coordinate system of the workpiece and a coordinate system ofthe NC machine is unknown, because the workpiece can be placed in the NCmachine with an arbitrary position and orientation by human operators orrobots. Therefore, before performing any operation to the workpiece, thecoordinate system of the NC machine needs to be registered with thecoordinate system of the workpiece. Then, the relationship between theworkpiece coordinate system and the machine coordinate system can bedefined as, for example, a rigid-body transformation.

The definition of the workpiece coordinate system depends on the shapeof the workpiece. For example, for a cuboid-shaped workpiece, one of thecorners of the cuboid can be specified as the origin of the workpiececoordinate system, and the edges of the cuboid connected to the origincan be defined as the X, Y, and Z axes of the workpiece coordinatesystem. For another example, for a cylindrical-shaped workpiece, thecenter of the top face of the cylinder can be defined as the origin ofthe workpiece coordinate system, the axis of the cylinder can be definedas the Z axis, and the X and Y axes can be defined arbitrary on the topface. If a three-dimensional (3D) model, such as a computer-aided design(CAD) model, of the workpiece is available, then the workpiececoordinate system can be defined arbitrarily in the 3D model.

The number of degrees of freedom (DOF) required for the registration,i.e., the number of DOF in the rigid-body transformation, depends on theassumptions and applications. For example, to mill a cuboid-shaped metalpiece placed on a flat platform in an NC machine, one needs to determinethe distance between the machining tool and the workpiece along the Zaxis, and the X and Y positions of the origin of the workpiece; thus thetransformation includes 3-DOF translation. Some applications do not needthe X and Y positions. In those applications, the transformationincludes only 1-DOF translation, i.e., the distance along the Z axis. Onthe other hand, if the cuboid-shaped metal piece is placed on theplatform with an angle, then it is necessary to determine the full 6-DOFtransformation, i.e., 3-DOF translation and 3-DOF rotation.

Currently the registration between the coordinate systems of theworkpiece and the NC machine is performed with the methods internal tothe NC machines, i.e., those methods are associated and implemented byeach NC machine. For example, one method determines the registration bysensing surfaces of the workpiece with a probe of the NC machine.Naturally, the data acquired by the probes for one NC machine cannot beused with another NC machine.

Another method uses a 3D sensor attached in an NC machine to reconstructa 3D model of the workpiece and determine the transformation. The 3Dsensor is fixed and calibrated with respect to the NC machine. Theregistration capability of that method also cannot be shared acrossmultiple NC machines and requires a dedicated 3D sensor installed ateach NC machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of some embodiments of the invention to provide a methodfor machining a workpiece by a numerical control (NC) machine and fordetermining the transformation between a coordinate system of an NCmachine and a coordinate system of a workpiece. It is another object ofsome embodiments to provide a registration method between a workpieceand the NC machine that does not require registration hardware dedicatedto the NC machine.

Some embodiments register a model of the NC machine and a model of aworkpiece with a model of a scene including at least a part of the NCmachine and a part of the workpiece to determine a transformationbetween the NC machine and the workpiece and reuse this technique formultiple registrations with different NC machines. In such a manner,some embodiments require neither a dedicated sensor installed at each NCmachine, nor the calibration between the sensor and the NC machine. Thisallows the sensor to be placed in different places with respect to theNC machine, or even hand-held by a human operator who scans theworkpiece and the NC machine. The same sensor can be used to perform theregistration task for multiple NC machines.

Some embodiments use a three-dimensional (3D) model of the NC machine,and register the machine 3D model with respect to the reconstructed 3Dmodel, which provides the transformation between the machine 3D modeland the reconstructed 3D model. Some embodiments also detect theworkpiece in the reconstructed 3D model to obtain the transformationbetween the reconstructed 3D model and the workpiece. By concatenatingthe two transformations, some embodiments obtain the desiredtransformation between the machine coordinate system and the workpiececoordinate system.

Some embodiments of the invention are based on recognition thatregistration of the workpiece with a coordinate system of the NC machineis an auxiliary process of the NC operation and should be distinguishedfrom the actual NC operations for milling, drilling or cutting theworkpiece. Therefore, there is a need for a system and a method that canbe used, e.g., concurrently or sequentially, for registration bymultiple NC machines without requiring a dedicated hardware installed ateach NC machine.

Some embodiments of the invention are based on general recognition thatthe registration of the workpiece with a coordinate system of the NCmachine can be done by an uncalibrated 3D sensor. Specifically, if the3D sensor concurrently acquires images of at least a portion of theworkpiece and at least a portion of the NC machine, that portion of theNC machine can be registered with the coordinate system of the NCmachine using a model of the NC machine, and that portion of theworkpiece can be registered with the coordinate system of the workpiece,allowing the workpiece to be registered with the NC machine through thereconstructed 3D model.

Some embodiments of the invention are based on realization that the lackof requirement of calibration of the 3D sensor and the need to acquireimages of only a portion of the NC machine allows to arrange the 3Dsensor such that the same sensor, concurrently or sequentially, capturesthe scene including portions of different NC machines, and, thus, can bereused for registration by multiple NC machines.

For example, in one embodiment, the 3D sensor is arranged in a premisewith multiple NC machines. For example, the sensor is installed near theceiling substantially at the center of the premise to captureconcurrently portions of all NC machines in the premise. In thisembodiment, the sensor can be used for performing the registration ofthe workpieces with corresponding NC machines concurrently. In anotherembodiment, the sensor is installed movably, e.g., rotatably, to acquirethe images sequentially. In yet another embodiment, the sensor is ahand-held camera that can be reused for performing the registration whenneeded.

Accordingly, one embodiment discloses a method for machining a workpieceby a numerical control (NC) machine. The method includes constructing amodel of a scene from one or multiple images of the scene including atleast a part of the workpiece and at least a part of the NC machine;registering a model of the NC machine with the model of the scene toproduce a first transformation between a coordinate system of the modelof the scene and a coordinate system of the NC machine; detecting theworkpiece in the model of the scene to produce a second transformationbetween the coordinate system of the model of the scene and a coordinatesystem of the workpiece; combining the first and the secondtransformations to register the coordinate system of the workpiece withthe coordinate system of the NC machine; and machining the registeredworkpiece with a tool of the NC machine according to the registration ofthe coordinate system of the workpiece with the coordinate system of theNC machine, wherein at least some steps of the methods are performed byat least one processor.

Another embodiment discloses a system for numerical control (NC)machining including a set of NC machines, wherein each NC machineincludes a platform for positioning a workpiece, a tool for machiningthe workpiece, and a controller for controlling the machining; athree-dimensional (3D) sensor acquiring one or multiple images includingat least a part of each NC machine and a part of a correspondingworkpiece; and a processor operatively connected to the 3D sensor and tothe controllers of the NC machines to register, before an operation ofeach NC machine, the workpiece arranged on the platform of the NCmachine with a coordinate system of the NC machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram of a method for machining a workpiece by anumerical control (NC) machine according to some embodiments of aninvention;

FIG. 1B is a flow diagram of a method for registering a workpiece withthe coordinate system of an NC machine according to some embodiments ofthe invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic of using the method of FIG. 1A and/or FIG. 1B witha fixed 3D sensor to concurrently register multiple workpieces withcoordinate systems of multiple NC machines according to one embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic of using the method of FIG. 1A and/or FIG. 1B witha movable 3D sensor to sequentially perform registering multipleworkpieces with coordinate systems of multiple NC machines according toone embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic of using the method of FIG. 1A and/or FIG. 1B witha hand-held 3D sensor to sequentially perform registering multipleworkpieces with coordinate systems of multiple NC machines according toone embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of a method for machining a workpiece by anumerical control (NC) machine according to one embodiment of aninvention. The embodiment acquires 150 images of a scene including atleast a part of the workpiece and at least a part of the NC machine toconstruct a model 155 of the scene, and registers 160 a model of the NCmachine with the model of the scene to produce a first transformation165 between a coordinate system of the model of the scene and acoordinate system of the NC machine. The embodiment also detects 170 theworkpiece in the model of the scene to produce a second transformation175 between the coordinate system of the model of the scene and acoordinate system of the workpiece, and combines 180 the first and thesecond transformations to register the coordinate system of theworkpiece with the coordinate system of the NC machine, therebyregistering the workpiece with the NC machine. Next, the embodimentmachines 190 the registered workpiece with a tool of the NC machine. Atleast some steps of the methods are performed by at least one processor.

The model of the scene can include a set of NC machines capturedconcurrently or sequentially. Each NC machine includes a platform forpositioning a workpiece for machining, a tool for machining theworkpiece, and a processor for controlling the machining. For example,the scene can be acquired using a sensor capturing one or multipleimages including at least a part of each NC machine in the set. In sucha manner, a processor operatively connected to the 3D sensor and to theprocessors of the NC machines can register, before an operation of eachNC machine, the workpiece arranged on the platform of the NC machinewith a coordinate system of the NC machine.

FIG. 1B shows a flow diagram of an exemplar embodiment registering aworkpiece with an NC machine using a three-dimensional (3D) sensor 101,such as a structured light sensor or a time-of-flight sensor, forrepresenting the scene as a set of 3D points. The 3D sensor can beplaced at a fixed position or held by a human operator. Some embodimentsassume that a 3D model of the NC machine 102 is available.

Using the 3D sensor, some embodiments reconstruct 110 a 3D model 115that includes at least a part of the workpiece and at least a part ofthe NC machine. The reconstructed 3D model 115 can be a single imageobtained from the 3D sensor, or can include multiple images obtained bymoving the 3D sensor and registered with each other using simultaneouslocalization and mapping (SLAM) techniques.

The reconstructed 3D model 115 is registered 120 to the machine 3D model102 by matching the part of the NC machine included in the reconstructed3D model with respect to the machine 3D model. The registration providesthe transformation between the reconstructed 3D model and the machine 3Dmodel, which we refer to as the machine-to-reconstruction transformation125. For example, some embodiments use a plane-based registrationmethod. Some embodiments first specify corresponding planes in thereconstructed 3D model and the machine 3D model. Alternative embodimentsuse other geometrical primitives such as points or lines for theregistration.

For example, one embodiment uses at least three corresponding planeswith normals that span the 3D space, and determines the transformationbetween the planes, i.e., transformation between the reconstructed 3Dmodel and the machine 3D model. Alternatively, some embodiments use apoint-based registration with at least three corresponding, but notcollinear points. Those embodiments can determine the transformationbetween the points, i.e., transformation between the reconstructed 3Dmodel and the machine 3D model. The corresponding points can bespecified manually, similar to the case of the corresponding planes, orautomatically by using a 3D keypoint detector and descriptor. Someembodiments can also use a combination of the point and planecorrespondences for the registration.

In the reconstructed 3D model 115, some embodiments also detect 130 theworkpiece to obtain the transformation 135 between the reconstructed 3Dmodel and the workpiece. Some embodiments refer to this transformationas the reconstruction-to-workpiece transformation 135. For detecting theworkpiece, the embodiments can use different strategies depending onwhether a 3D model of the workpiece is available or not. For example, ifthe 3D model of the workpiece is available, then some embodiments canregister the workpiece 3D model with respect to the reconstructed 3Dmodel, similar to the registration between the machine 3D model and thereconstructed 3D model using the plane-based or point-based registrationalgorithm as described above.

Alternatively, some embodiments use an interactive approach, where ahuman operator specifies some predefined positions of the workpiece inthe reconstructed 3D model, e.g., by using a mouse click interface. Ifonly the 3-DOF translation is required for the registration (e.g., forthe case where a cuboid-shaped workpiece is placed on a flat platform),then the human operator needs to specify only the position of the originof the workpiece in the reconstructed 3D model. If the full 6-DOFtransformation is required, then the human operator needs to specifythree predefined positions of the workpiece (e.g., three corners) toobtain the 6-DOF transformation using the point-based registrationalgorithm.

Next, the machine-to-reconstruction transformation 125 and thereconstruction-to-workpiece transformation 135 can be concatenated 140to obtain the machine-to-workpiece transformation 145.

FIG. 2 shows an example of using the method with a static 3D sensor 200to concurrently perform the registration for multiple NC machines 210.The 3D sensor is installed so that multiple NC machines are in the fieldof view 220 of the 3D sensor and the images can be acquiredconcurrently.

FIG. 3 shows an example of using the method with a movable 3D sensor 300to sequentially perform the registration for multiple NC machines 310.Specifically, the 3D sensor moves 320, e.g., rotates or translates, toacquire the images of the NC machines sequentially.

FIG. 4 shows an example of using the method with a hand-held 3D sensor400 to sequentially perform the registration for multiple NC machines410. Here the 3D sensor is connected to a mobile computer 420 and heldby a human operator 430. The human operator moves 440 to sequentiallyacquire the images, e.g., on demand.

The above-described embodiments of the present invention can beimplemented in any of numerous ways. For example, the embodiments may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. Whenimplemented in software, the software code can be executed on anysuitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in asingle computer or distributed among multiple computers. Such processorsmay be implemented as integrated circuits, with one or more processorsin an integrated circuit component. Though, a processor may beimplemented using circuitry in any suitable format.

Also, the embodiments of the invention may be embodied as a method, ofwhich an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of themethod may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments maybe constructed in which acts are performed in an order different thanillustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, eventhough shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

Use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” in the claims to modifya claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence, ororder of one claim element over another or the temporal order in whichacts of a method are performed, but are used merely as labels todistinguish one claim element having a certain name from another elementhaving a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish theclaim elements.

Although the invention has been described by way of examples ofpreferred embodiments, it is to be understood that various otheradaptations and modifications can be made within the spirit and scope ofthe invention. Therefore, it is the object of the appended claims tocover all such variations and modifications as come within the truespirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:
 1. A method for machining a workpiece by a numerical control(NC) machine, comprising: constructing a model of a scene from one ormultiple images of the scene including at least a part of the workpieceand at least a part of the NC machine; registering a model of the NCmachine with the model of the scene to produce a first transformationbetween a coordinate system of the model of the scene and a coordinatesystem of the NC machine; detecting the workpiece in the model of thescene to produce a second transformation between the coordinate systemof the model of the scene and a coordinate system of the workpiece;combining the first and the second transformations to register thecoordinate system of the workpiece with the coordinate system of the NCmachine; and machining the registered workpiece with a tool of the NCmachine according to the registration of the coordinate system of theworkpiece with the coordinate system of the NC machine, wherein at leastsome steps of the methods are performed by at least one processor. 2.The method of claim 1, further comprising: acquiring the images of thescene using a three-dimensional (3D) sensor.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the images of the scene include a set of NC machines and acorresponding set of workpieces, further comprising: registering, beforean operation of each NC machine, the coordinate system of each NCmachine with the coordinate system of the corresponding workpiece. 4.The method of claim 3, wherein the 3D sensor is static while acquiringthe images.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the 3D sensor is movingwhile acquiring the images.
 6. The method of claim 3, wherein the 3Dsensor is a hand-held camera.
 7. A system for numerical control (NC)machining, comprising: a set of NC machines, wherein each NC machineincludes a platform for positioning a workpiece, a tool for machiningthe workpiece, and a controller for controlling the machining; athree-dimensional (3D) sensor acquiring one or multiple images includingat least a part of each NC machine and a part of a correspondingworkpiece; and a processor operatively connected to the 3D sensor and tothe controllers of the NC machines to register, before an operation ofeach NC machine, the workpiece arranged on the platform of the NCmachine with a coordinate system of the NC machine.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, wherein the 3D sensor acquires the images concurrently.
 9. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein the 3D sensor acquires the imagessequentially.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the 3D sensor acquiresthe images upon demand.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein, for each NCmachine, the processor registers the corresponding workpiece using areconstructed 3D model of the scene by registering the reconstructed 3Dmodel to a 3D model of the NC machine to obtain a first transformationbetween the reconstructed 3D model and the 3D model of the NC machine;detecting the part of the workpiece in the reconstructed 3D model toobtain a second transformation between the reconstructed 3D model andthe workpiece; and combining the first and the second transformations toregister the workpiece with the NC machine.